Will not Chew his Dinnies !

[Twinkletoes]

Hello, I have 2 stunning border terriers (well one is a cross with a doaschund lol and was an accident)... One is 3 (the cross) and one is 2. The latter came to me as a rescue at 10 weeks. He was thin, and had not had a great start. He very quickly adapted to a life of luxury, and now works, and parades our beaches and local woods with complete ownership. He has also begun a good (local, due to the 'snip') showing career, and adores the fuss wherever he goes.

Our problem....... he has Never learnt to chew his food. He guzzles, and I mean literally shovels in with his bottom jaw as much as he can fiesably fit in, 2 chews then its gone. We put it down to the fact he clearly had to fight for his food anywhere he could get it as a baby, but had hoped he would grow out of it. We tried 3 small feeds a day for some time but it didnt make any difference. We have gone from dried food through to jellied, chicken and rice, tripe - u name it we have tried it. We have tried small bit and larger bite completes, and nothing seems to work. Any advice would be hugely appreciated. x Both are a great weight, very fit, wormed etc etc. They eat together and the younger still does it even if he gets fed first with the other dog out the way, incase he was feeling under pressure! ... Would be great to hear from you.

 

[CAYLA]

Have u had him checked by your vet or had a quick look in his mouth to check everything is in order/no deformaties that may prevent him from chewing.
We had a rescue in not so long ago that gulped when eating.....her jaw was severley under developed.....however she could not keep any weight on and she was large breed

If he is happy and healthy and keeping weight on I would not worry to much.....be may be worth getting him checked.

 

[Twinkletoes]

Yes.......... all fine on that count! Our vet loves him and constantly tells me how bad we were to have him neutered lol as he has a beautiful bitch looking for a husband just like him. He is very, very happy, but does produce some Very bad smells prob because of trying to digest near complete food.

 

[sloulou]

sounds like he's still worried his food might go if he doesn't eat it fast!

I have a lab and they hoover their food up - so someone suggested to me that I put something like a kong or similar in his food bowl to make it harder for him to eat fast... which did work.

We have actually changed what we feed him now and he no longer gulps his food on his new diet - but that is cos the food we give him is difficult to eat fast!

Also I guess you could feed him his dinner stuffed inside a kong or something? To slow him down?

what sort of food is it? Dry or wet?

 

[prose]

I have a piglet who practically inhales her food. On the plus side, she is the most food-motivated dog I've ever met, so she's been easy to train.

I tried putting water in her kibble, putting a kong in her bowl, feeding her smaller amounts, but nothing worked, and she actually started chocking a couple of times because she ate so fast. So now we have her on wet food (home-made), so at least she's not choking anymore. Sorry I have nothing more productive to add.

Here is the gannet in action

 

[Sooty]

Dogs don't really chew, they don't have the teeth for it. They are set up for tearing flesh and swallowing fairly large chunks, so I wouldn't worry too much. Just make sure he doesn't get huge pieces of food and he should be fine.